Personal Development Planning - Essay Example

Personal Development Planning First Objective: My pathway choice and how it enables me to develop my employability skills My pathway choice is Global Financial Management. Finance department is the backbone of any organization. It administers and takes care of all financial matters of the organization in the day to day operations. The importance of finance department in the managerial decision-making is tremendous. Global financial managers need to be expert in collecting and preserving the required information. They should be skilled in analysing the data and interpreting it so that everybody can understand and utilize the information to facilitate the business operations. The pathway of Global Financial Management essentially unites two distinct areas of financial management expertise; namely accounting and finance. Global financial managers discuss and evaluate the financial parameters of business planning and performance. The course of Global Financial Management provides the students with a deep in-sight into the strategies used by the financial institutions and intermediaries to operate successfully in a highly dynamic and challenging environment. Students are taught the structure of financial markets, the factors that play a role in the development and breakdown of financial markets, and the way financial markets operate. The pathway of Global Financial Management provides a clear and coherent framework and educates and trains the students so that they can fully understand the challenges and deliver in the field of accounting and finance. The pathway of Global Financial Management enables the students to develop their employability skills by teaching them the mathematical techniques and operations involved in accounting and finance. Students are taught financial report writing which is a very important skill in the field of accounting and finance. Innovative financial management and strategic financial planning are some of the most required and relevant skills in the contemporary market driven by creativity and innovation. Students understand the financial capital markets in detail and develop the knowledge of annual company accounts. The pathway polishes the students’ ability to determine cashflows for the organization they work for and creates an understanding of latest developments in business thinking in the students. As a result of taking this course, students become deep thinkers and their ability to make informed decisions is improved. The pathway of Global Financial Management prepares the students to work in a variety of areas that include but are not limited to corporate finance, trading, banking, real estate, financial services, investments, and private equity. The students may specialize in journalism or financial analysis after completing their studies. All of these skills are extremely relevant in the practice of financial management. Students are trained to effectively manage the financial affairs of businesses of all types and sizes. The students are also able to play their part in the development of corporate strategy, management accounting, business planning, and in improving the competitive position of the organizations they render their services for. Second Objective: Critically evaluation of an academic example that fits with employability skills Students in an accounting ethics class are taught ethical frameworks and theories; they study the code of professional conduct, and are given case analysis comprising a number of ethical situations. Textbooks comprise all these and other resources to propose a learning and decision making foundation for the students. I have learnt that it is possible for an individual to learn to be more ethical regardless of the natural tendency. The least effect such courses have on students is that the students get sensitized to ethical dilemmas even if they are not sure what to do when presented with them. Realization of the problem is the first step toward its resolution. After we reviewed a range of ethical dilemmas in the class and discussed different ways and approaches toward their solution, we were given the task of writing a paper on an ethical decision we had made. In this assignment, the students were required to share the ethical dilemma they faced, and the way it was handled. The professor pledged that the ethical dilemmas would not be shared by third parties so that all students could honestly narrate their personal experiences, challenges, and approaches toward their resolution. We were also required to share how, after studying the code of professional conduct as well as all the ethical theories and frameworks, will we approach the same ethical dilemma differently today. In the start, it was difficult for me to locate such a situation from the memory of my past. After much thinking, I brought up the case when I had signed a check of my own father. It happened when I was 13 years old. I was alone in the home with our maid who was busy cooking. Someone pressed the doorbell. I reached to find my uncle, who was my father’s close friend at the door. He greeted me and asked me to take the check to my father and ask him to replace it with a new one since this one had a cutting on it. My father had signed and delivered this check to my uncle the previous day. While he waited at the door, I took the check and went into my father’s room. Without understanding the gravity of my action, and in an attempt to facilitate my uncle with a positive intention, I tore off a check from the checkbook of my father, copied the details from the first into the second check, and signed it off. I felt so good about being able to assist my uncle and having done this “grown-up men thing”. It was the highlight of my day and I happily shared it with my father. As soon as he learnt it, he called my uncle to make sure everything was fine. My uncle confirmed that the transaction had been processed. My father was very angry at me that day, but he taught me never to sign a check that is not my own. I used utilitarian theory of ethics to evaluate my decision; in whose light, my decision could not be established as wrong since the overall good was far more than bad, if any. However, the wrong could have far outweighed the good had the check been caught or suspected for cheating! This assignment was very important from ethical decision-making point of view. It relates to the employability skills in several ways. Not only it built the confidence in me to confess my own mistakes, but it also developed critical thinking skills in me to tell the right from the wrong course of action, which is a critically important employability skill. In addition, ethical decision-making is one of the most important employability skills for a global financial manager. Although this assignment was not as technical as other assignments related to finance and accounting usually are, yet it made me realize the ethical dilemmas, my motives and actions, and decisions that I made at one time in my life which I might never have reflected upon had it not been for this assignment. Reflection is a critically important activity that enables us to learn the lessons from our own mistakes so that we do not repeat them. It was for the first time that I was analysing and reflecting upon my experiences so objectively. The lectures and contents taught in the class helped me comprehend the right way to make decisions. I have learnt that we may never learn the reality of facts until we note down all details and facts. Ethical theories helped me evaluate my actions and understand others’ as well as my own mistakes. The part of the assignment where I was required to share how I would do differently if presented with the same situation again deepened my thinking. Third Objective: A vocational example with an explanation of the choice and ways in which it demonstrates employability skills I started my internship with Ford on 17 April 2011. My orientation group was comprised of 100 students in total. The experience started with display of a slideshow, followed by completion of the necessary paperwork. My supervisor, Henry Ford, escorted me to my cubicle. I was a Young Engineer Intern and my core responsibilities were focused at financial management. Apart from the technical skills, I observed the importance of having soft skills in order to be a good financial manager. Every day, I had to talk to so many people both within and outside the organization. I offered my services on three main projects while working as an Intern at Ford. The first project was about streamlining the process of program budget for the engineering managers. The programs included hybrids, performance cars, and full-size trucks and there was a separate engineering business manager (EBM) for each who was responsible for developing its yearly budget. I met with all EBMs and tried to find out how they reached the estimated budget they created. I learnt different resources utilized in the budget process including the estimates of project engineers, finance spreadsheets, contingency factors, historical costs, and personal experience of the estimators. After speaking to many EBMs, I found that there is no single and defined way of doing the budget processing because personal experiences of the EBMs count a lot in the development of budgets. I compiled the information collected from each EBM and presented it to my supervisor Henry in the spreadsheet format. Lack of availability of the information on time introduces subjectivity into the calculation of budget numbers. Presenting a summary of my findings to the EBMs, I requested them to enter the actual cost for each item next to the estimated cost and in the third column, comment on the causes of difference for the record and referral in the future. The second project that I worked on was related to the accessory department. I used the Accessories Calculator, which is a complex Excel workbook, to find out the success of particular accessories in the market. To achieve this, I first had to make a user guide for the calculator. The first challenge for me was to get familiar with the Accessories Calculator. I had a blank workbook to do the experiments with. I sought help from the man in charge of the project, Mr. Ben, in order to learn the use of calculator more thoroughly. I spent the next two weeks developing and modifying user guides. The result I came up with was two PowerPoint presentations; the first being a guide on the use of the Accessories Calculator whereas the other being a descriptive and illustrative aid on the working of the calculator, the information it needs, and the output it generates. These guidelines will be useful for all future users of the Accessories Calculators in the organization. My next challenge was to modify the Accessory Calculator. I had to change different formulas to capture the new information. It required me to change the formulas in the Excel document of the Accessory Guide manually. Fortunately, I had some experience of creating and modifying the formulas in MS Excel. I was able to achieve my goal after a hefty day at work. My vocational experience of internship was very informative and a great learning curve for me. This vocational experience developed a range of employability skills in me. Not only I had a practical experience of working as part of an organization, but I also learnt how to deal with people professionally along with learning different skills of financial management. Although it was hard for me to spend hours and hours working on the audit, checking and comparing cost estimates, and mastering the use of Accessories Calculator without any prior experience of the same, yet I learnt a lot as a result of this hard work. I realized the importance of planning, scheduling, and time management in accomplishing the goals within the allocated time. I had to conclude the internship after three months because my school was resuming again, but the General Manager was so impressed with my services and approach to work that he offered me to join the company as an Associate Auditor next year if I can manage it considering my time and work constraints. Fourth Objective: What do I hope to learn about myself out of this reflective review exercise This reflective review exercise is very important. Many times in our life, we are doing things that are extremely important and that play a very important role in shaping our persona, the way we think, and what we have and where we land in the future; but we do not give those things the level of deep thinking they deserve for being so impactful on our life. Choosing the career pathway is one of such turning points in life that everybody goes through in the academic journey. This reflective review exercise provided me with an opportunity to pause for a moment, and really think about my career pathway in detail. As a result of doing this exercise, my vision on my career pathway has become clearer and I am much more focused now than I might have been without doing this exercise. As a part of doing this exercise, I have studied and researched my career pathway in detail and have learnt a lot about it that I might have missed out otherwise. A career pathway is something that one has to deal and live with for the rest of one’s life. Once chosen, it becomes very difficult to switch a career after spending so much time, money, and effort in developing the career to that point. This imparts a need for us to be very clear on what are doing, what is its importance, and what are the job responsibilities and job prospects associated with the chosen career pathway so that we may be able to make informed decisions as to whether we should continue with or switch our career pathway for the better. Another great skill that I have learnt as a result of doing this reflective review exercise is reflection itself. The importance of reflection cannot be overemphasized. Everybody makes mistakes but the wise people are those who learn from their mistakes so that they can avoid making them in the future. It is not possible for us to learn from our mistakes unless we realize where we did the mistake, what were the factors that contributed to it, and how it could have been avoided. Some of the exercises e.g. the academic example I discussed in this reflective review was based exactly on this perspective. In this reflective review, I have done a reflection on my career pathway. After this, I intend to do a reflective review of other areas and aspects of my life ranging from my spirituality to my lifestyle in general. The exercise of reflective review will help me realize where I stand in life at present and where I want to get as well as what I need to do in order to reach my desired destination. From this standpoint, this was one of the most useful exercises I have done in my academic career. Read More